SCENE & HEARD
Walking Company CEO Plans Comfort Superstores FORMAT SYNERGIES, IMPROVED backroom efficiencies and economy of scale weren’t the only reasons Andrew Feshbach, CEO of The Walking Company, acquired FootSmart. He has a brick-and-mortar vision for the primarily catalogbased business: FootSmart Andrew Feshbach comfort superstores. Think LensCrafters, but for feet, he says. “FootSmart is going to be the totality of health, comfort and wellness for footcare,” Feshbach predicts. His plan is to open the first such locations in 2017. “It’ ll offer the total selection— shoes, insoles, bunion pads, compression socks, etc. And, like at LensCrafters, where customers can also get eye examinations and prescriptions, maybe we’ll have a podiatrist on site as well. It’s an interesting opportunity, and I’m really excited to rebuild FootSmart.” Feshbach promises that FootSmart, acquired from Benchmark Brands last month, will be nothing like the 200-plus Walking Company stores, aside from some brand overlap. Walking Company stores offer a gourmet approach to comfort footwear retailing with upscale mall locations, higher price-points and focus on style with comfort. FootSmart, by contrast, will be a comfort footwear superstore, along the lines of what Whole Foods is to organic food (i.e. one-stop shopping). FootSmart will also serve as an outlet for The Walking Company’s proprietary Abeo brand and its range of products, which spans shoes, insoles and orthotics. “We think we can create a sticky environment at FootSmart with these brands,” Feshbach says. “We intend to create a few FootSmart-owned brands as well.” FootSmart already has the comfort pedigree and name recognition. Founded in 1989, the business sells more than 3,000 comfort footwear, heel and pain-relieving products and is considered an authoritative resource. Another perk of the acquisition, Feshbach notes, is gaining access to FootSmart’s “gargantuan” database to complement a similar-sized one The Walking Company owns. “With both databases, 8 footwearplusmagazine.com • september 2016
we’re going to have a leg up in terms of talking to our customer and delivering products and services they will want to see from us,” he predicts. One of Feshbach’s first steps was to take a page from Victoria Secret’s playbook and do away with its printed catalog. Instead, the focus is on upgrading FootSmart’s e-commerce site with plans to unveil it this spring. “It’ll have mobile compatibility and be a much more sophisticated platform for all your footcare needs,” he says. Feshbach says FootSmart had to get in step with the times. “It was still operating primarily as a mail-order business, which is old fashioned,” he explains. “Rather than viewing the Internet as a way to grow its sales base, the company used it as a way to operate its mail-order business. The catalog was driving all of their decisions.” And while The Walking Company still distributes a printed catalog, those days may be numbered. “The catalog being the primary driver is over,” Feshbach says. “I want to focus on the Internet.” Nevertheless, Feshbach remains a firm believer in brick-and-mortar retailing—when it comes to shopping for comfort footwear needs. “People aren’t going to malls as much, but if they want 3-D fitting or need a custom arch support, they can’t do that online,” he says. “That’s the stickiness to our stores. It works, and we think it can be applied to FootSmart superstores as well as sending FootSmart online customers to Walking Company stores.” Feshbach’s goal is to upgrade FootSmart customers into Walking Company ones whenever possible but not vice versa. “There are millions of FootSmart customers who have never gone into one of our Walking Company stores to get serviced,” he says. “Best case, we trade them up. Worst case, they become better FootSmart customers.” Either way, Feshbach believes comfort footwear stores will gain importance in the years ahead. “Evolution has not caught up with our life expectancy,” he says, noting the ability to be mobile is a key to staying healthy for older adults. “Those aches and pains we experience as we age…comfort footcare can help alleviate them and keep us moving. We’re transitioning a sale from a ‘want’ to a ‘need,’ and that’s really valuable.”
Bam! JSSI Cooking with Emeril Lagasse JACK SCHWARTZ SHOES, Inc. (JSSI) has entered into a partnership with celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse to produce a line of slip- and stain-resistant footwear for professionals in the restaurant industry. Lagasse, the founder of 12 restaurants and star of Emeril Live and Top Chef, brings his years of experience and understanding of specific demands of culinary professionals. The collection will be available through an exclusive partnership with Shoe Carnival stores. “I know how difficult it is to find a comfortable shoe that can handle the wear-and-tear of being on your feet all day,” Lagasse states. “I want to create a reasonably priced, better looking and higher quality line of shoes.” Design highlights include antimicrobial and water-repellant uppers, Memory Foam insoles and an Emeril-inspired slip-resistant outsoles offering reliable traction on any surface. “The restaurant shoe industry has long been known for its limited offerings and unimaginative design,” states David Schwartz, president of JSSI. “We’ve worked closely with Emeril to create a range of shoes that offer comfort, durability and style.”